Validation, Identity, and Surfing Penguins
I didn’t get Surf’s Up when I first watched it. Which is absurd, considering its a 2007 animated kid’s movie about talking penguins who also can surf. Doesn’t really seem very… philosophically intriguing, to say the least. Nevertheless, there I was, bundled under a blanket in my room, thunderstorm raging outside, hot cup of milo beside me as I impatiently waited for the damned YouTube advertisements to be over. It was, as they say, a dark and stormy night, and I was in the mood to watch a movie. Except I’m a medical student - notorious for a low budget and an even lower will to leave the house unless necessary. So, free YouTube movie from the 2000s it is.
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I have a thing for these 2000s-2010s emo high school white boys with daddy issues - quite literally the exact opposite of the south east asian pre-teen girl who had her room painted pink. There’s something alluring about them - be it the casual confidence hiding the shallow pit of their self-esteem, or the effortless cool balanced with their moments of sacred vulnerability. Didn’t help that they were hot too, I guess. Watching this movie for the first time, I couldn’t help but think to myself that ten year old Joy would have had Cody Maverick (the protagonist) up there along with Jim Hawkins and Max Goof in her head. His passion for surfing, despite him being in the middle of nowhere Shiverpool, Antarctica (and a penguin, of course. But this is never addressed. Surfing is indeed, a penguin-central sport in this universe) and the way he hurriedly brushes over the fact that his father was eaten, despite the film crew pressing him for more.
Oh yeah, film crew. So, this movie’s a documentary? Shaky handheld camera, boom mics in the corner of screens, off-screen voices you assume to be the documentary directors - all complete.
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But back to the point - I didn’t get what this movie was trying to teach kids. Or rather, trying to teach me.
See, no one believes in Cody. Not his mother, who doesn’t understand her son’s obsession with the sport, choosing to ignore his pleas to come watch when he tries out for the talent scout, nor his older brother, who is needlessly cruel and crass about how he believes Cody is a failure. I felt really bad for Cody - no one in his corner, yet the kid still persevered. He just needed one shot at the tournament - to finally surf with the big names, prove he wasn’t just another loser.
Cody Maverick: I don’t understand why everybody has to be so judgmental. I understand why mom’s judgmental. I think it’s ‘cause she cares, *partially*. Think it’s also partially ‘cause, everyone else is lookin’ at her like, “Hey, Cody’s just a bum.” “Cody’s this,” “Cody’s that,” “Cody’s this.”
[pause]
Cody Maverick: Cody’s me, bro. Let me be me. When is that going to start?
Ok, spoilers from here on out but like just go watch the movie guys, its 2025 for crying out loud, piracy is an option.
Cody unexpectedly runs into his hero - the legendary Big Z, who was the world’s greatest surfer until his tragic ‘death’. Z’s not into surfing anymore - the pressure of trying to be the best all the time got to him, and he chose to run away from the spotlight. But he sees himself in Cody - takes him under his wing, both physically and metaphorically.
Again, I cannot stress this enough, this is a movie about talking penguins who also like to surf. This was released a year after happy feet, which explains the penguins, but whoever that genius was in the writer’s room who said, what if we put the penguins on surfboards and also make this an in-universe documentary film? deserves free ice cream for the rest of their life.
And Cody, having been trained under a literal legend, is ecstatic to get back to the tournament. Finally - he has his big break. People are going to see that his love of surfing wasn’t just some silly fantasy - that he really was talented and skilled and driven. And I’m sitting here, in my pajamas, hand half raised in celebration for him -
Big Z stands up. He tells Cody, I’m not coming. And there’s this disappointed look in his eye - like after all this time, he can’t believe Cody’s still going to the contest.
I. Was. Shocked.
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How dare he? Didn’t he realize how much this meant to Cody? This was the kid’s big break - his chance to pull himself out of that lousy old town and cement his name among legends. I wanted Cody to lash out - to yell back that just because Big Z got obsessed with winning didn’t mean Cody would. Cody would be different - Cody would learn from Z’s mistakes. Cody - he -
I got so worked up about it I had to pause the movie.
I get Cody. Cody is me, bro. Not the first time in my life I’ve related to a CGI animal, but I digress. I know what it felt like when people who were supposed to encourage you only wanted to bring you down.
Many people I’ve met have had fantastic English teachers - especially writers, who often credit them as the spark that lit their creative flame. I did have a great, amazing, stupendous English teacher - but only in high school. For all the years of my life before that, about as long as I can remember being in school, it was always… her.
For years, I felt trapped inside this box she’d built around me - at parent teacher meetings, she’d complain of the same things over and over again. She’s daydreaming in class. She’s always so forgetful. She’s too proud, too bossy. It was a weird sort of power imbalance - she did nothing but try to tear me down; yet I couldn’t help but chase her validation. I was top of my class for nearly every subject (an impressive feat for a kid who skipped a grade), I was a model student leader, I played guitar for the worship team - heck, I cleaned her office for her. I marked my junior’s homework. Looking back, it’s almost laughable how desperate I was.
I wish I could say that I’ve fully broken free from this horrible mindset - from tying my self-worth to the approval of other people. But this 2007 children’s movie about a teenage penguin trying to win a surfing tournament had somehow crawled inside my head and reawakened some deep-seated belief my childhood self was still holding on to.
That, fundamentally, I am not good enough.
Which is why I was constantly trying to prove myself to anyone - and I mean ANYONE! Who ever decided to say one single negative thing about me. I chased perfection in the eyes of my peers, my mentors, my family - in the eyes of the world, I wanted to be spotless. And until today, there’s a part of me that’s yelling at me in the back of my head - that if I’m not the best, then everyone’s been right about me, and I really am a failure.
Which is why this movie’s ending is so profound to me. You see, I was expecting some dramatic conclusion to the arc of Cody’s mom and brother. Maybe they came all the way to Hawaii to watch him surf in the finals. Maybe his brother would finally see other people cheering Cody on and realize that the kid really did have talent.
Yet, that’s not truly where the movie sets it’s final emotional conclusion upon. It’s this scene, of Cody in the ocean surrounded by the friends and people he’s met on his journey. The sun’s setting, the water’s clear, and the waves have never been more beautiful - and that’s where I got stuck again.
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Because Cody’s story doesn’t end with him proving himself to the world. It ends with him proving himself… to himself. He no longer seeks that external validation that made him crave victory. He no longer surrounds himself with people who talk lowly of him. Surfing no longer represents escape, freedom, success - surfing becomes, well, surfing. Just having fun with your friends. And in turn, Cody embodies these qualities - freedom, success, escape - in and of himself. He no longer needs to search - for he’s realized the power to change the narrative was in himself all along.
In a way, we’re all Cody Maverick. Desperate for approval from all the wrong people. Hanging on to that off chance that our big moment to finally silence the doubters is just around the corner. But maybe the real question is: who exactly are we trying to impress? The ones who’d cheer even if we came in second, or the ones who’d shrug and walk away when we’re first?
For me, I now know my answer. I’m doing this for me. Because I have worth beyond academic grades. Because I am more than the things people say about me. And simply because, at the end of the day, med school is what I love. And that’s all the proof I need to know that I belong here.
Cody Maverick: Here I am, having a good time, riding the waves with my friends, not caring about who wins or loses but just surfing. Good old-fashioned fun, that’s, well, fun!
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Again, I cannot stress this enough. A late 2000s animated mockumentary for about talking penguins who also surf - starring an emo teenage bird with daddy issues - somehow has helped me untangle years of self-doubt simply by staring right into the camera and passionately saying, “Cody’s me bro. Let me be me.”
Talk to you later, World!
Joy *^____^*
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